Resource use by two morphologically similar insectivorous bats (Nycteris thebaica and Hipposideros caffer)

Studies of morphologically dissimilar insectivorous bats have lead to the conclusion that morphology is the prime correlate of habitat use, and consequently of diet. This has lead to the prediction that morphologically similar bats should have similar diets. We examined the diet and morphology of two morphologically similar species, the slit-faced bat, Nycteris thebaica, and Sundevall's leaf-nosed bat, Hipposideros caffer, in the context of this prediction. Although both species foraged in the same habitat, they had distinctly different diets. The diet of N. thebaica consisted mainly of non-volant prey, primarily orthopterans and arachnids, and the diet of H. caffer, mainly of moths. Differences in wing design between the two taxa were small. The only significant difference was in aspect ratio. There were no differences in wing loading and wingtip shape ratio between the two species. The flying abilities reported for these two species are very similar, suggesting that these small differences in wing design do not translate into differences in flying ability, and cannot explain the dietary differences between these two species. On the other hand, there are marked differences in their prey detection systems which correspond to differences in their diets. H. caffer uses echolocation to detect the flapping wings of insect prey, whereas N. thebaica depends on prey-generated sounds (fluttering or scuffling) to locate its targets

Species abundance dynamics under neutral assumptions: a Bayesian approach to the controversy

1. Hubbell's 'Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography' (UNTB) has generated much controversy about both the realism of its assumptions and how well it describes the species abundance dynamics in real communities. 2. We fit a discrete-time version of Hubbell's neutral model to long-term macro-moth (Lepidoptera) community data from the Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) light-traps network in the United Kingdom. 3. We relax the assumption of constant community size and use a hierarchical Bayesian approach to show that the model does not fit the data well as it would need parameter values that are impossible. 4. This is because the ecological communities fluctuate more than expected under neutrality. 5. The model, as presented here, can be extended to include environmental stochasticity, density-dependence, or changes in population sizes that are correlated between different species

Peluang Peningkatan Tipe Terminal di Kecamatan Banyumaik (Analisis Demand dan Supply)

Kecamatan Banyumanik merupakan kecamatan yang terus mengalami perkembangan baik dari jumlah penduduk maupun pelayanan kotanya. Kecamatan ini juga berbatasan langsung dengan kabupaten Semarang dan menjadi gerbang koridor semarang atas atau semarang bagian Selatan sehingga memiliki pergerakan yang tinggi sebagai jalur keluar masuknya kota Semarang. Pergerakan yang tinggi tersebut tidak diimbangi dengan ketersediaan fasilitas transportasi pendukung yaitu terminal. Terminal merupakan salah satu fasilitas utama yang memiliki peran penting dalam sistem transportasi. Menurut keputusan menteri nomor 35 tahun 2003 pengertian terminal adalah prasarana transportasi jalan untuk keperluan memuat dan menurunkan orang dan/atau barang serta mengatur kedatangan dan pemberangkatan kendaraan umum, yang merupakan salah satu wujud simpul jaringan transportasi. Terminal juga memiliki peran yang penting sebagai unsur tata ruang dalam kaitannya untuk meningkatkan mobilitas dan efisiensi kehidupan kota. Terminal merupakan tempat untuk mengurangi kemacetan dimana dapat mengatur lokasi pergantian moda transportasi menjadi lebih teratur. Lokasi sebuah terminal harus sesuai dengan rencana tata ruang wilayah (RTRW) dan sesuai dengan kebutuhan masyarakat Di kecamatan Banyumanik hanya memiliki sub terminal atau terminal bantu yang berfungsi sebagai tempat transit dan pergantian moda. Demand yang tinggi terhadap fasilitas transportasi tersebut tidak sebanding dengan supply fasilitas terminal yang tersedia sehingga mengakibatkan timbulnya titik-titik baru yang digunakan masyarakat untuk menunggu angkutan yaitu terminal bayangan. Terminal bayangan ini muncul karena adanya demand yang tinggi dari mayarakat banyumanik terhadap kebutuhan sarana transportasi dan efisiensi waktu. Ketidakseimbangan antara demand dan supply ini mengakibatkan berbagai dampak makro maupun mikro terhadap lalu lintas maupun jaringan angkutan di Kecamatan Banyumanik dan kota Semarang

Tapping the nucleotide pool of the host: novel nucleotide carrier proteins of Protochlamydia amoebophila

Protochlamydia amoebophila UWE25 is related to the Chlamydiaceae comprising major pathogens of humans, but thrives as obligate intracellular symbiont in the protozoan host Acanthamoeba sp. The genome of P. amoebophila encodes five paralogous carrier proteins belonging to the nucleotide transporter (NTT) family. Here we report on three P. amoebophila NTT isoforms, PamNTT2, PamNTT3 and PamNTT5, which possess several conserved amino acid residues known to be critical for nucleotide transport. We demonstrated that these carrier proteins are able to transport nucleotides, although substrate specificities and mode of transport differ in an unexpected manner and are unique among known NTTs. PamNTT2 is a counter exchange transporter exhibiting submillimolar apparent affinities for all four RNA nucleotides, PamNTT3 catalyses an unidirectional proton-coupled transport confined to UTP, whereas PamNTT5 mediates a proton-energized GTP and ATP import. All NTT genes of P. amoebophila are transcribed during intracellular multiplication in acanthamoebae. The biochemical characterization of all five NTT proteins from P. amoebophila in this and previous studies uncovered that these metabolically impaired bacteria are intimately connected with their host cell’s metabolism in a surprisingly complex manner

The T2K ND280 Off-Axis Pi-Zero Detector

The Pi-Zero detector (P{\O}D) is one of the subdetectors that makes up the off-axis near detector for the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) long baseline neutrino experiment. The primary goal for the P{\O}D is to measure the relevant cross sections for neutrino interactions that generate pi-zero's, especially the cross section for neutral current pi-zero interactions, which are one of the dominant sources of background to the electron neutrino appearance signal in T2K. The P{\O}D is composed of layers of plastic scintillator alternating with water bags and brass sheets or lead sheets and is one of the first detectors to use Multi-Pixel Photon Counters (MPPCs) on a large scale.Comment: 17 pages, submitted to NIM

‘Cytology-on-a-chip’ based sensors for monitoring of potentially malignant oral lesions

Despite significant advances in surgical procedures and treatment, long-term prognosis for patients with oral cancer remains poor, with survival rates among the lowest of major cancers. Better methods are desperately needed to identify potential malignancies early when treatments are more effective. Objective To develop robust classification models from cytology-on-a-chip measurements that mirror diagnostic performance of gold standard approach involving tissue biopsy. Materials and methods Measurements were recorded from 714 prospectively recruited patients with suspicious lesions across 6 diagnostic categories (each confirmed by tissue biopsy -histopathology) using a powerful new ‘cytology-on-a-chip’ approach capable of executing high content analysis at a single cell level. Over 200 cellular features related to biomarker expression, nuclear parameters and cellular morphology were recorded per cell. By cataloging an average of 2000 cells per patient, these efforts resulted in nearly 13 million indexed objects. Results Binary “low-risk”/“high-risk” models yielded AUC values of 0.88 and 0.84 for training and validation models, respectively, with an accompanying difference in sensitivity + specificity of 6.2%. In terms of accuracy, this model accurately predicted the correct diagnosis approximately 70% of the time, compared to the 69% initial agreement rate of the pool of expert pathologists. Key parameters identified in these models included cell circularity, Ki67 and EGFR expression, nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio, nuclear area, and cell area. Conclusions This chip-based approach yields objective data that can be leveraged for diagnosis and management of patients with PMOL as well as uncovering new molecular-level insights behind cytological differences across the OED spectrum

Search for Charmless Two-body Baryonic Decays of B Mesons

We report the results of a search for the rare baryonic decays $B^0 \to p\bar{p}$, $\Lambda\bar{\Lambda}$, and $B^+ \to p\bar{\Lambda}$. The analysis is based on a data set of $31.7\times 10^6 B\bar{B}$ events collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB $e^+e^-$ collider. No statistically significant signals are found, and we set branching fraction upper limits ${\mathcal B}(B^0 \to p\bar{p}) < 1.2 \times 10^{-6}$, ${\mathcal B}(B^0 \to \Lambda\bar{\Lambda}) < 1.0 \times 10^{-6}$, and ${\mathcal B}(B^+ \to p\bar{\Lambda}) < 2.2 \times 10^{-6}$ at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures and 1 table. Submitted to Phys. Rev. D Rapid Communication

A measurement of the tau mass and the first CPT test with tau leptons

We measure the mass of the tau lepton to be 1775.1+-1.6(stat)+-1.0(syst.) MeV using tau pairs from Z0 decays. To test CPT invariance we compare the masses of the positively and negatively charged tau leptons. The relative mass difference is found to be smaller than 3.0 10^-3 at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts.

Search for the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) in gamma gamma collisions

Data taken with the ALEPH detector at LEP1 have been used to search for gamma gamma production of the glueball candidates f0(1500) and fJ(1710) via their decay to pi+pi-. No signal is observed and upper limits to the product of gamma gamma width and pi+pi- branching ratio of the f0(1500) and the fJ(1710) have been measured to be Gamma_(gamma gamma -> f0(1500)). BR(f0(1500)->pi+pi-) < 0.31 keV and Gamma_(gamma gamma -> fJ(1710)). BR(fJ(1710)->pi+pi-) < 0.55 keV at 95% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV

A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81 GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure